Elin Hilderbrand Steps Into New Waters After Retiring From Writing Beach Reads (Exclusive)

At the book signing for the new novel by author Elin Hilderbrand on June 11, Swan song, a line of devoted readers, who call themselves “Hilderbabes,” surround Books and Greetings in Northvale, NJ. Most of the participants of the event are women of all ages, and they are all waiting in anticipation of the writer who has been a significant part of their lives for a long time. “I read my first book on my 50th birthday on the ferry to Nantucket,” one fan tells PEOPLE of Hilderbrand’s novels. “I thought, ‘This is it for me. I love it.’” “I save [Hilderbrand’s books] for summers,” says another reader. “That’s the only time I’ve read them, because I feel like they’re just transporting me to Nantucket. . . . If you’ve read one of her books, you understand a lot of them.” For Hilderbrand, who arrives at the event wearing a striped sunset-like dress — it’s a tradition that each of her book signings has a themed color — this new novel is both bittersweet and a bit of a relief. After writing 27 books based on the island of Nantucket in Massachusetts, Swan song, out now, is the last of Hilderbrand’s summer-themed novels before she moves away from the genre. “My retirement is, really, for them,” Hilderbrand, 54, tells PEOPLE of her fans. “I never want someone to pick up my book and say, ‘It just wasn’t as good as the last one.’ That won’t happen. I’ve watched a lot of people’s careers and how you get off the horse is very important.”

Start on the beach

Elin Hilderbrand.

Paul Marotta/Getty

Hilderbrand still remembers the first time she saw Nantucket. It was 1993, and she was on the ferry to the city for a visit. People started to mingle on the upper deck, and while the author was looking at the water, she saw two bell towers of the church on the island and sailing ships in the harbor. It was love at first sight. “I thought, ‘I like it here,'” she recalls. “‘I love it here and I’ll never leave.'” At the time, Hilderbrand, who grew up in Pennsylvania, was living in New York. She will soon leave her job in book publishing and follow her childhood love of writing (she won best author in her second grade class) to study at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Hilderbrand still remembers her first published works as an aspiring writer—her debut publication, a short story called “Misdirection” in Seventeen Magazine, brought $800.

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“The rest, it just didn’t end that easily,” she says. Her debut novel from 2000. Beach club, boosted by a mention in PEOPLE, sold out its first print run of 2,500 copies, but success came more gradually with her other titles. Her first #1 The New York Times bestseller was a 2019 historical fiction novel Summer ’69.As a native of Nantucket, where she moved permanently in 1994, Hilderbrand often mentions real places and runs into readers every day. Extracting fiction from fact, however, is a delicate dance. Her novel, Rumors, is inspired by a real experience. When Hilderbrand went in for a biopsy before her breast cancer diagnosis (she’s now been cancer-free for nine years, according to her website), someone saw her at the hospital. Rumors spread that she had cancer even before she got the results, Hilderbrand says.

“I say, ‘Okay, I’m writing a novel about all these people who gossip, and I’m going to put all these real gossipers in the book, which I did,'” she says. “But you have to change them enough to fit the story, [so] that no one knew who they were but me.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler has arrived! How fast can you solve it? Play now! When he can, Hilderbrand writes his drafts by hand by the ocean. She did not change anything in her process for Swan song – less from superstition, and more from knowing what works. “Each book, in a row for the last four or five years, has gotten harder to write because Nantucket is small and I have to have new footage,” she says. “And it’s hard to get a new look at No. 27.” The novel, which chronicles the arrival of a mysterious couple on Nantucket, brings back some of Hilderbrand’s most beloved characters for one last adventure on the island. Although Hilderbrand finished her Nantucket novels on her own terms, it was still an emotional turning point. “I was fine until I wrote the last chapter,” she says. “I cried, and then I cried every time I read it.”

To step into fresh waters

Elin Hilderbrand.

Elin Hilderbrand/Instagram

For such a longtime literary icon, it’s only natural that Hilderbrand sets her sights on becoming an influential book — both through social media, where she often takes to Instagram to promote new authors, and through her podcast, Books, the beach and more, which she co-hosts with Nantucket Book Foundation President Tim Ehrenberg. “I never wanted the listener to feel like they had to read the book,” Hilderbrand says of the podcast. “I wanted it to be a person [who] they have already read the books”. To date, Hilderbrand has spoken with everyone from Colleen Hoover to Jake Tapper on the show. Sarah Jessica Parker, a devoted reader who published her book SJP Lit in 2022, recently started the second season.

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Hilderbrand, a mother of three, is also writing a book series with her daughter, Shelby. The novels are set in an academy, based on the boarding school Shelby attended. Both mother and daughter were fascinated by some of the school’s traditions, including an annual dance that Hilderbrand describes as more like a rave. Together, the two characters contemplated a “space similar to the Nantucket Hotel.” Hilderbrand recently finished a draft of the first book and is sending it to Shelby so she can rewrite the dialogue. “I’m in a new genre world here,” says Hilderbrand. “It doesn’t sound nearly as realistic if you don’t just use the language that kids use.”

“My kind of novel is important”

Elin Hilderbrand.

Elin Hilderbrand/Instagram

Long called the “Queen of Beach Reads,” the upcoming series of novels marks a new era in Hilderbrand’s career. The author admits that she has had some complaints about how the beach reading genre, and especially her Nantucket novels, have been received over the years.” [words] ‘easy’ and ‘breeze’ or ‘light breeze’ just drive me crazy,” she says. “I know what they mean. They mean it’s not dark, it’s not depressing, it’s not gritty… It might not even be considered important, but if you don’t connect with the characters, you won’t turn the pages.”

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Hilderbrand, who prefers to read literary fiction in her spare time, uses the tools she learned in graduate school and applies them in a beach setting. This is why her stories are both escapist and, occasionally, an emotional reading experience. Among the sun and sand, her characters face death, disease and other difficult life factors. Because of this, Hilderbrand has had many meaningful interactions with fans over the years. A mother whose daughter was killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting told Hilderbrand that her novels helped her through that difficult time. The woman revealed that she had read the author’s 2017 novel. Identical, to his aunt when she died of breast cancer in hospice care. Hilderbrand even carries a letter in her bag from a reader who kept her novels close after suffering multiple miscarriages and post-partum depression, and who was later inspired to join a book club. “My books brought her back into the world,” says Hilderbrand. “I read it [letter] because it is so inspiring, but it is also proof that my kind of novel is important, that it has purpose and value.”

Looking towards the horizon

Elin Hilderbrand.

Beowulf Sheehan

As she greets fans in the children’s section of Books and Greetings — posing for pictures, complimenting summer outfits and returning thanks — Hilderbrand is truly at the end of an era. It’s amazing to hear the stories her readers share with her as they approach her desk to sign their books and to witness the subtle (and occasionally outright) sadness of a shared summer romance event. “People brought me gifts, which always somehow brought me gifts, but now [they bring] retirement cards, which is so funny because I feel so young,” says the author.

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But Hilderbrand is not leaving Hilderbabe yet. Following her book tour, she will hold weekly book signings at Mitchell’s Book Corner on Nantucket throughout the fall for her local fans. However, so many appeared that the author had to limit each signing to 135 tickets, in order to get them out on time. The author is also scaling back her other events, such as her famous Bucket List Weekends, where she joins readers across the island to explore the setting of her books. “As soon as I return home on June 21, the summer should be very mild,” says the author. “I do some fun things with my friends and kids.” In addition to the much-needed rest, she is also looking forward to the long-awaited TV adaptation of her 2018 novel. A perfect couple. The series is set to hit Netflix before the end of the year, starring Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. For Hilderbrand, this latest book is also an opportunity for reflection. She recalls the words of wisdom a college professor gave her before graduation. “He said, ‘You have to go out into the world and live,'” she says. “And that’s the advice I give people, and that advice has served me well.”Swan song is now available wherever books are sold.

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Source: HIS Education